Tidbits of fall arriving slowly, here and there

 The great room mantle Fall 2015

 Just loving the fall colors....

 It is actually much more massive looking in person.

I am using real live scare crows outside this year :) lol

More to come later, taking my time and enjoying the decorating this year. 

Sunflowers from the garden....

 Just trying to rush some Autumn weather by bringing in some sunflowers, so far it hasn't worked.

Pear butter, and more fall goodies at the farm

I have stayed inside the house with all of the windows closed up today because of the heat, so I have managed to get some more fall decor put together.  Here are a few teasers...

It has really "cozied" up the house.

I will show the whole picture later......I'm just teasing until I get finished.

How can a girl have fall without a rooster?? More of that later also.

Look what dear sweet hubby brought home for me this time... yes...three five gallon buckets of fall pears. Actually he was expecting pair preserves, but we still have plenty left over from the last five years! Sooooo, off I went to find something to do with all of these lovely pears (besides eat them raw, which I have done also).

I ended up with pear butter.  This just screams fall to me, and it is absolutely divine! After hubby tasted the first batch, he was all for more pear butter instead of preserves.

This is mostly for my benefit, because I did not follow one recipe, or write anything down.  I combined several that I liked, and I will never remember this next fall when I want to make this again. Since I never measure anything, all I will have to do is look at this post and know what I added......oh, and literally cups and cups of brown sugar for that caramel taste.....that is the key!

One batch (12-15 pears) doesn't make much after it is cooked down (I used the crock pot) then pureed, and then cooked down for an hour or so on the stove top. I used the little 4 oz jelly jars for one batch.  I love to fix little baskets of goodies at Christmas time, and I think these will fit in quite well.

When I went to dump the pair peelings at the compost area, look what I happened upon. I knew hubby had planted the fall garden, but I had no idea it was this far along. Guess what's for supper at my house???

The beginnings of fall, and a new horse..

 I finally got started with my fall decor, but I didn't get as much done as I would have liked.

I haven't bought anything new...I used leftover's from years past. (No money spent = really pretty to hubby) lol

 I am loving the new over-sized mantle that hubby built when we re-did the fireplace with the airstone (faux stone).

 I absolutely love the rich, vibrant, colors of fall.

I wish it could be fall all year long.

Now, the real reason for this post...No, it is not a real horse. Sorry if I got your hopes up.  A while back, I ordered an over-sized poster from All-posters. It is a 48x36, for $36.00, using a discount that they were offering at the time, and free shipping. Take a look...

It has been awful trying to get a decent picture of it, and this is the best that I could do with the poor lighting in this room. It looks all washed out, and it really isn't. Now, after I got this poster, I just simply could not,  would not pay the price that everyone wanted in order to get it framed. The least amount that I could find a frame for at this size was $500.00!!! Whew...this would defeat the whole purpose of trying to find a piece of art at a reasonable price.

We have friends who owned a gift/frame shop, who recently closed to go home and enjoy life, who had leftover material's, and when I asked...he was happy to frame the poster for me. Ahhhh, thank goodness for bored friends. I only had to pay $25.00..and that was for the glass. He wouldn't take another penny. His name is Mr K. D., and I am so grateful that he was willing to help me out. (He knows how tight hubby is) Now, I have this huge picture in my new dining room, with a total of $61.00 invested....not $500.00+.

Here is a close up of the frame that he wouldn't let me pay for. Thanks, Mr. K. D.

Hopefully I will have more of the new dining room to share soon. I just simply can't get decent pictures with the poor lighting and this latest camera that I have.

My mama's most recent project.....

Yes, she wants you to guess....but no, there is no prize if you guess correctly. Well, I could give you a sugar if you guess right. This has been so much fun for me......and my daddy.

Ok, this is not one of the hints. I am just showing you what my pretty little face looks like in case your the winner of the sugar.

The new project is in my fenced in area of the back yard. Have you guessed yet???

My daddy wasn't really on board at first, but when he saw that my mama wasn't going to give up on this project he knew he better give in and get to work. I have been right by his side the whole time, you know, chasing frogs that are in the big hole, scratching red dirt and getting my face dirty, and giving my daddy sugars for getting in this hole to play with me. Yes, I am sure he is in this hole for my benefit!!

My mama has lots of pictures, but when she started choosing the ones to show, she realized that daddy's underwear were showing in ALL of the pics because he is always bent over. She didn't figure ya'll wanted to see all of that, and....she didn't want daddy to use this hole to bury her in :(

Have you guessed yet?? I am getting ready to pucker up.....

Ok, Ok, she will give you a hint so that you can get a sugar and be on your way already....take a look at what is going on back here.

Here is the source for this eye candy, along with some other great ideas if you want to take a look. My mama's won't look exactly like this, but you get the idea, don't you??
She was really wanting this done in time to decorate it for fall, because ya'll know that is her most favorite time of the year, but we don't think it will be ready by fall. Along with this, the whole deck area will be "spruced" up, with a sitting area surrounding the new fireplace, and a huge new harvest table on the covered porch area that my daddy was suppose to have already built for her. Keep your fingers crossed that neither of my parent's end up buried in that huge hole before the slab is poured. So far, so good, but sometimes, well hardly ever, are they "on the same page" as my mama says on these projects that she comes up with.

We will have a huge get together and roast marshmellows  and have hot chocolate when we get this fireplace done, and yes, ya'll are all invited!

Ya'll know my sister, Annie, will be there. Yea, she is the silly one that loves marshmellows, and my mama always browns them for her when we have a fire outside.

Happy, happy birthday

Five years ago today, I found this sweet baby in the road and brought her home with me, with intentions of finding her a good home.

Remember this face? Hubby kept saying this was a face that only a mother could love.....well I assure you, I grew to love her with all of my heart!

I called everyone that I could think of that may want a "dog". I begged, I pleaded....with everyone, and no one wanted her. Finally hubby said, "you need to stop trying to push that dog off on everyone that you talk to". So I said "well what am I suppose to do with her??" His answer was, "we will just keep her". Of coarse by this time, he was rocking her to sleep at night and hand feeding her.

Five years later, I simply cannot imagine life without her!

Happy Birthday Sophie, we love you!

A hutch full of love...

Ok, ok, so maybe it is not that mushy, but recently I asked the hubby to "build" me a hutch. His response was "show me a picture". Not a problem, I hop on my pinterest board and start showing him what I want. All of this time, he has thought that these "ideas" came from my head/imagination/creativity, lol.

 This is what he had to start with. It is an old dresser that was no longer in use. It is an odd size, but I just wasn't ready to let it go. Don't you just love it when you have those "AaaaaHaaaa" moments??

 We sketched out a plan and got to work. I wanted this top to match the wood that was going to be used for the shelving and back of the hutch, so it involved some stripping.....which I said that I would not do again the last time that I stripped. Stripping is tough at my age!!

 But just look at her, she was worth every bit of the stripping that I had to do in order to get her! Didn't he do a great job?? I just noticed in this picture that I have left off the knobs on the bottom four drawers. Don't you just love when your showing off and the pics show your "goofs"??

 She is massive, but this room needed massive. Our ceilings are 10ft tall, and he built her to be 8ft tall. Sorry for the poor pic quality, I think I need a new camera.

 I don't have a lot of expensive dishes, and never will because I just don't care anything about that sort of "stuff", so she is packed with junk and stuff.

I have never, ever liked this "formal" dining room...mainly because I am not a "formal" person. Every time I change this room, I hope this is it, and then I change it again, and again, and again. Well, I hope this works for us this time. I still have a list of things to do.....new lighting, rug, drapes, art....you know how that goes. I hope to have it complete by fall, wish me luck,